CIVIL servants in charge of tackling climate change were accused of hypocrisy yesterday - for taking 676 internal UK flights last year.

They made almost two trips a day by the polluting plane rather than the eco-friendly train.

The new coalition Government has pledged to clamp down on civil servants' transport costs.

Plane wrong ... civil servants' 676 internal flights

And short flights by Whitehall mandarins at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, which cost taxpayers £161,000, could be first to go. The DECC encourages business to cut carbon footprint emissions. Yet its own flights are bad for the environment.

Shockingly, 32 were between London and Manchester - where a train journey takes just over two hours.

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "This is rank hypocrisy. Ordinary people are made to feel guilty about flying but it's another rule for ministers and civil servants." The number of internal flights was revealed after a Freedom of Information request submitted by The Sun.

The department said: "We have to balance the use of teleconferences and lowest-carbon travel with the occasional need to be somewhere quickly."

The Environment Agency is already changing of policy after it was exposed for paying for 174 short hop flights.

j.kay@the-sun.co.uk

Civil servants making a mockery of the system? Tell us below.